Utkarsh NarangFounder, IgnitedNeurons · Your best doers become your worst managers as you scale. I turn them into leaders so your best people don’t leave.

Why Every Generation Thinks Work Is Harder Than Before

30 Dec 2025 · 2 min

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Utkarsh Narang says Gen Z finds modern corporate jobs worse than unemployment, but the other speaker argues every generation thinks its era is uniquely hard. He points to medieval and early-modern work conditions as actually far worse, suggesting future generations will judge our jobs the same way we judge the past.

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I was reading somewhere that I think the current generation, the Gen Zs, they're finding it painful to be in jobs than to be unemployed because the pressures of the corporate world are real. So how do we help someone who's listening to us right now and feeling like, damn, this is a tough world to live in?
It's not tough. They haven't seen tough. Okay. So let me start there because, you know, I do sympathize and I do respect. Because everyone has a certain level, normal level. Okay. So whenever you lose this normal level, anything sub-level is awful. So the Gen Z, I'm talking about maybe any part in the world. Okay. They came up with certain entitlements and losing them is awful. So that's why I do, I do agree with their negative feelings around this or how they feel bad about it and everything. But on the other hand, I also agree with them. Think about, for example, I visit from time to time the Middle Ages, the museums in small European towns about their history. And the section about the Middle Ages are awful. Think about medicine in Middle Ages or think about work in Middle Ages. Okay. From 500 years later, we go back and we see awful, you know, how it is, the way they did operations or the treatments, you know. Even 100 years ago, awful. You don't want to kind of hear about it. Even I feel bad. Maybe in 200 years' time from today, maybe 100 years, maybe 500, I don't know, they will feel the same for us. They were supposed to go to work. What? 9 to 5?